Charles XII, also Carl, Latinized to Carolus Rex, was the King of Sweden from 1697 to 1718. He belonged to the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, a line of the House of Wittelsbach. Charles was the surviving son of Charles XI and Ulrika Eleonora the Elder. He assumed power, after a caretaker government, at the age of fifteen. Leading the Swedish army against the alliance Charles won multiple victories despite being usually significantly outnumbered, a major victory over a Russian army some three times the size in 1700 at the Battle of Narva compelled Peter the Great to sue for peace which Charles then rejected. Russia was now the remaining hostile power. The defeat was followed by Surrender at Perevolochna, two campaigns met with frustration and ultimate failure, concluding with his death at the Siege of Fredriksten in 1718. At the time, most of the Swedish Empire was under military occupation. This situation was later formalized, albeit moderated in the subsequent Treaty of Nystad, Charles was an exceptionally skilled military leader and tactician as well as an able politician, credited with introducing important tax and legal reforms. With the war consuming more than half his life and nearly all his reign, Charles, like all kings, was styled by a royal title, which combined all his titles into one single phrase. The fact that Charles was crowned as Charles XII does not mean that he was the 12th king of Sweden by that name, Swedish kings Erik XIV and Charles IX gave themselves numerals after studying a mythological history of Sweden. He was actually the 6th King Charles, the non-mathematic numbering tradition continues with the current King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf, being counted as the equivalent of Charles XVI. In late 1699 Charles sent a detachment to reinforce his brother-in-law Duke Frederick IV of Holstein-Gottorp. A Saxon army simultaneously invaded Swedish Livonia and in February 1700 invested Riga, Russia also declared war, but stopped short of an attack on Swedish Ingria until September 1700. Leading a force of 8,000 and 43 ships in an invasion of Zealand, Charles rapidly compelled the Danes to submit to the Peace of Travendal in August 1700, Russia had opened their part of the war by invading the Swedish-held territories of Livonia and Estonia. Charles countered this by attacking the Russian besiegers at the Battle of Narva, the Russians outnumbered the Swedish army of ten thousand men by almost four to one. Charles attacked under cover of a blizzard, effectively split the Russian army in two and won the battle, many of Peters troops who fled the battlefield drowned in the Narva River. The total number of Russian fatalities reached about 10,000 at the end of the battle, while the Swedish forces lost 667 men, Charles did not pursue the Russian army
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